A Walk Past Eve and Adam’s: The 2014 Zurich James Joyce Foundation Workshop, Zurich, Switzerland, 3–9 August 2014

The activity of walking is a significant way by which we take ourselves from one place to another. It also happens to be the primary mode of our arrival at the Zurich James Joyce Foundation, where a group of Joyce enthusiasts convened last year as is annually done—this time on the subject of ambulation. The creaky wooden floor-boards announced our presence in Strauhof, and we enjoyed reunions with colleagues, brownies, plum cake, and tea.

“Sit down and take a walk” (U 3.79)

In spite of the workshop title—“Walking”—we sat down in the room adjacent to the library. This would be in opposition to classical teachings, for, when challenged by an arrogant philosophy student saying that there is no such thing as motion, Diogenes of Sinope stood up and walked away. The Zurich participants sat around the room, each in view of the others, resembling the style of an ancient Greek symposium. Offerings for the week began with Fritz Senn’s “Variants of Walking,” which led us through an interactive word-map of the synonyms that extend from the adjective “walking” and the verb “walk.” A red folder circulated around the Foundation, filled front to back with instances of walking in Joyce’s works. Having laboriously trudged through the texts himself, Senn set the peripatetic stage for a debate that was to unfold that week.

“Whom were you trying to walk like?” (U 3.184)

The act of walking does not permit having both feet off the ground at the same time: that is an impossible feat, given the cosmic imbalance and our dependence on gravity. As such, we tend to use different modes of being to represent walking, and Ian Gunn proved exactly that. While walking through a new Dublin with an old Dublin map in hand, he recalled that one would have to “walk over buildings” and through houses to reach designated spots in Ulysses. It is no wonder then that we also spring, jump, fly, and dive through the text with its continually superimposed borders and lines. What is more compelling is the fact that it takes a common walker, not a reader, more than two hours to complete the alleged route that Stephen Dedalus takes to get to Sandymount, notwithstanding his traverse into eternity.

The Workshop is meant to be an active agora of discussion and learning. Where many academic conferences and symposiums fail to bring participants together, this one always fulfills such a goal. Almost all aspects of the theme are mutually explored as participants amble into the nooks and crannies of the oeuvre. Though there is no expectation of dramatic academic breakthroughs, there is always room for an open discussion after every presentation. This serves as good training for beginning Joyceans, as well as veteran readers, to learn from each other. For instance, one of the debates at this Workshop raised the question of how exactly the throwaway might have floated on the Liffey and how the weather on that fateful Dublin day influenced its movement; Gunn believed that the depiction of the movement of the throwaway cannot be trusted because it may not, after all, have been the same one given to Bloom.

“He left me on my ownio” (U 6.375)

Having solemnly strolled through the fictional “Hades” themselves, Sabrina Alonso and Bill Brockman gave us new ways to imagine how we as readers might pass through the underworld. A pictogram revealed how, where, and in which direction the occupants of the funeral carriage were oriented. The city passed them by as if in stop-motion, while the carriage seemed to stand still. Such pivotal revelations shed light not only on the episode but also on the creative freedom of the Zurich Workshops. One is often surprised by the variety and richness of chosen topics. In fact, the themes are often anything but limiting, as demonstrated by the ongoing success of the 2013 Newspapers Workshop.

“Where did I? … Where?” (U 8.1189)

The question of destination is one quite pertinent to walking. Whether...